2011 WoodstockFilm Festival wraps up

Monday

Sep 26, 2011 at 2:00 AMSep 26, 2011 at 10:22 AM

The Woodstock Film Festival's actors' dialogue panel on Sunday morning was the hottest ticket in town. This year's panel, moderated, as usual, by local celebrity interviewer Martha Frankel, featured “actor's actor” Vincent D'Onofrio.

Lindsay Suchow

WOODSTOCK — The Woodstock Film Festival's actors' dialogue panel on Sunday morning was the hottest ticket in town.

At the start of the panel, an audience member asked D'Onofrio how he was enjoying his visit – to which he responded coyly, “I live in Kingston.”

The 30-plus-year Method acting veteran first appeared on the big screen as the infamous Pvt. Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence in Stanley Kubrick's “Full Metal Jacket.”

“I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for Stanley Kubrick,” said D'Onofrio, later adding that the biggest myth about Kubrick “is that he was nutty. He wasn't, at all. He'd remind you of most artists you know here in Woodstock.”

D'Onofrio went on to star in a lengthy roster of films like “The Salton Sea,” “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” and “The Cell.” However, he has made perhaps his biggest mark on the acting world in his decade-long leading role as Det. Robert Goren in TV's “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”

Next on tap for D'Onofrio is familiar territory: another police drama, “Blue Tilt,” with Ethan Hawke, which has just been picked up by NBC, with the pilot slated for a December shoot. “Blue Tilt,” D'Onofrio explained, covers uncharted waters in the realm of TV cop dramas.

“‘Blue Tilt' is not a crime show, per se – it's about how the job rubs off on people,” said D'Onofrio. “Blue Tilt is a term used on the West Coast for how law enforcement (officials) are affected by their jobs, and how it rubs off on their families.”

Frankel confessed to D'Onofrio that her husband's favorite film is “Men in Black,” in which D'Onofrio plays the villanous Edgar, a giant cockroach-like alien who inhabits the body of a farmer. Frankel said she watches the movie at least once a month.

D'Onofrio revealed that to add authenticity to the role of “The Bug,” he locked his legs into braces and fastened wood to his ankles with duct tape. That helped him achieve the stiff, awkward movement of Edgar.

Elsewhere around Woodstock on Sunday, Best Student Short Film winner “The Recorder Exam” was screened at the Kleinert/James Arts Center, including a special Q&A with producer Zoe Sua Cho after the show, and renowned Blue Sky Studios animators discussed the film “Rio.”

The film's director, Tony Kaye, whose other credits include his debut feature film, “American History X,” took home a coveted Maverick Award at Saturday's awards ceremony in Kingston – with an acoustic guitar performance as his acceptance speech.